Architizer is thrilled to announce that the 2026 A+Product Awards is open for submissions! The clock is ticking — get your merchandise in entrance of the AEC trade’s most famous designers by submitting at this time.
You discover the staircase first. Bronze-painted metal, floating within the heart of the foyer. Then you definitely look nearer and catch the treads: Pietra d’Avola, a wealthy, chocolatey Sicilian limestone that Salvatori — the Tuscan stone home based close to Carrara in 1946 — has spent many years championing as a hotter different to the whites that dominate modern interiors. If Salvatori’s work, the story: Guido Salvatori invented the split-face end in 1950, the corporate developed Lithoverde (the primary recycled pure stone composite) sixty years later, the staircase isn’t only a staircase.
That is how Lodge AKA NoMad unfolds for anybody with a skilled eye. Piero Lissoni’s first New York Metropolis resort, which opened in Might 2023 at 131 Madison Avenue, is crammed with objects that carry histories, and people histories are legible to anybody who is aware of the place to look.
The sofas, for example. They’re Dwelling Divani, which suggests greater than fifty years of Brianza upholstery custom, which suggests Lissoni’s three-and-a-half-decade tenure as the corporate’s artwork director, which suggests a selected philosophy about proportion and luxury: how seat depth pertains to backrest peak, how foam densities and body engineering can produce ease with out visible bulk. His Frog chair, designed for Dwelling Divani in 1995, anticipated the low-slung seating that may come to outline modern interiors. His Extrasoft couch, launched in 2008, stays a reference level for modular upholstery. To take a seat on one among these items at Lodge AKA NoMad is to take a seat inside a physique of labor.
The furnishings tells an analogous story. Porro, the Brianza producer the place Lissoni has served as artwork director since 1989, constructed its identification on what the corporate calls “subtraction” — progressive simplification that strips furnishings to important geometry. That pondering lives all through the resort’s guestrooms. It lives, too, within the Fantini lavatory fixtures: a family-owned producer on Lake Orta, based in 1947, whose collaborations with main designers have formed modern fixture design. Lissoni’s personal Aboutwater assortment, co-designed with Naoto Fukasawa for Fantini, introduced architectural rigor to the toilet. These should not nameless fittings; they’re icons of design which have provenance.
Even the artwork is chosen at this stage of specificity. The Poster Membership, the Copenhagen platform that curates rising Scandinavian artists, chosen the guestroom works — items by Atelier Cph, Estelle Graf, Moe Made It, Nord Tasks — for what the resort describes as “delicate, natural, graphic, easy shapes” in dialogue with Lissoni’s interiors. Within the foyer, a distinct register: textile items by X+L, the Amsterdam duo Xander Vervoort and Leon van Boxtel, who’ve labored collectively since 1996. Their hand-dyed and hand-woven silk compositions, summary and geometric, carry seen irregularity. They name it “the human contact.”
The through-line is a craft that may be traced. Each factor connects to a workshop, a philosophy, a place inside the self-discipline. For guests who carry that data, the resort reveals itself. For many who don’t, the coherence nonetheless registers with heat, restraint, the sense that selections have been made consciously and meticulously.
AKA, the hospitality model behind the challenge, constructed its mannequin on prolonged stays: weeks and months reasonably than nights. A division of Korman Communities, a five-generation Philadelphia actual property household, the corporate operates sixteen properties and positions itself round “livability” and the concept that a resort ought to operate as a brief residence reasonably than a approach station. The Lissoni collaboration, which started with Lodge AKA Alexandria, displays that ambition.
Architizer spoke with Larry Korman, CEO of AKA, concerning the design philosophy behind the property, the Lissoni partnership, and what it means to create areas that really feel genuinely inhabitable.
You’ve staked your model identification on creating the “World’s Most Livable Motels.” What are the non-negotiable design and experiential parts that make a resort actually livable versus merely luxurious?The ‘World’s Most Livable Lodge’ means designing areas that really feel genuinely like dwelling, with consolation, performance and considerate design at each flip, supposed to welcome friends for weeks and even months at a time. Design sits on the core of AKA’s identification, turning every keep from merely purposeful to actually memorable. Every property displays its environment whereas sustaining refinement and understated magnificence, with intuitive layouts, personalised service and curated enterprise, wellness and way of life facilities that deliver the convenience of residential dwelling into each keep. Artwork and design have all the time been central to AKA, and Lodge AKA NoMad is a pure extension of that philosophy. Designed by Piero Lissoni, it showcases cultured, distinctive inventive aptitude to match the creativity of downtown Manhattan, providing our discerning vacationers the world’s most livable resort in one among New York Metropolis’s premier design locations.
Lodge AKA NoMad marks Lissoni’s first NYC resort. What drew you to his work, and the way does his Japanese-Scandinavian minimalism align with AKA’s residential philosophy?AKA has a long-standing inventive partnership with Piero Lissoni, whose design philosophy resonates deeply with AKA’s personal. Lissoni’s Italian design heritage with Japanese-Scandinavian minimalist influences, the place quiet magnificence, performance and calm coexist, mirrors AKA’s residential method, creating areas the place friends really feel actually at dwelling whereas immersed in considerate, refined design. As leaders in long-stay lodging, we apply our residential philosophies to raise conventional inns into extra livable, high-quality areas — a imaginative and prescient strengthened by Lissoni’s work.
Lodge AKA NoMad, Lissoni’s first New York Metropolis resort and his second collaboration with AKA after Lodge AKA Alexandria, brings this philosophy to life. From guestrooms to public areas, his intentional method transforms the property right into a serene retreat in Manhattan’s Design District, balancing tranquility with the power of town. This collaboration highlights the seamless mix of consolation, privateness and elegance that distinguishes AKA inside the hospitality panorama. The property presents a luxurious escape that’s actually quiet, and folks can retreat and really feel calm.
You’ve positioned this resort in Manhattan’s Design District. How does a neighborhood’s inventive power affect this property and certainly the opposite properties within the portfolio, and the way does the resort contribute again to NoMad’s design tradition?NoMad has turn out to be one among Manhattan’s most fun neighborhoods, and that power undoubtedly shapes the vibe at Lodge AKA NoMad. Being within the coronary heart of the Design District means we’re surrounded by progressive studios, showrooms and artistic tasks which are respiration new life into historic buildings and that inspiration reveals up all through the resort. Our friends get to expertise the very best of the neighborhood, from the Empire State Constructing views in our Empire Suite to strolls by Madison Sq., and all of the furnishings and design showrooms close by.
On the identical time, we contribute by creating areas that remember design and craftsmanship. The resort’s type and programming are all about reflecting the neighborhood’s inventive pulse whereas providing a refined, welcoming place to remain. It’s actually a two-way relationship: NoMad conjures up us, and we intention to contribute to its status as a hub for design and tradition.
From that floating origami staircase to customized window seats within the guestrooms — these really feel like deliberate investments in moments of pause. How do you concentrate on the position of those human-scaled design gestures in shifting how friends inhabit area?The signature spiral staircase at Lodge AKA NoMad is greater than only a design factor; it’s a journey of magnificence, type and performance. As one among Lissoni’s signature architectural statements, the staircase anchors the foyer and turns into one of many very first parts friends encounter once they stroll in, instantly setting the tone for the refined, sculptural design narrative that carries all through the property.
At AKA, we see each element as a possibility to create moments that make friends decelerate and have interaction with their environment. These touches assist rework a room from merely a spot to remain into an expertise that feels private and considerate. By designing for consolation, curiosity and discovery, we encourage friends to inhabit the resort in a extra intentional, immersive approach. Finally, it’s these refined gestures that make a keep at AKA really feel each luxurious and distinctly memorable.
With 16 properties throughout a number of continents, what’s it you do to take care of design integrity whereas responding to every location’s distinctive character? What’s the through-line that makes an AKA property recognizable?
Our design course of begins by actually attending to know every location. Each property displays its metropolis, from the historic attraction of Philadelphia to the relaxed sophistication of West Palm, to the vigorous power of New York Metropolis, whereas retaining the nice and cozy, residential really feel that’s unmistakably AKA. We lean into minimalist design: clear traces, pure supplies, uncluttered areas and understated touches that create a relaxed, welcoming vibe.
Throughout all our properties, the purpose is identical: areas that really feel like dwelling, the place friends can cook dinner in their very own kitchen, work from their lounge, or simply unwind in consolation. Signature particulars like tailor-made furnishings, a steadiness of fashion and performance, and nods to the native neighborhood make every property really feel related to its metropolis, but immediately recognizable as AKA. With 5 generations of the Korman household’s expertise in residential actual property shaping every little thing we do, we intention to supply areas which are genuine, considerate and a bit sanctuary-like, irrespective of the place you keep.
How folks work and journey has basically modified during the last 5 years. How has AKA’s residential-forward mannequin stepped as much as meet that shifting mindset and attain new visitor expectations, and what are you listening to out of your guests about what it’s they want from hospitality now?
AKA has been on the forefront of the posh long-stay market since 2005, providing a novel hotel-home hybrid that anticipates what at this time’s vacationers are in search of. The previous few years have accelerated a shift in how folks work and journey — hybrid work, leisure journeys and longer stays are actually the norm. Friends aren’t simply on the lookout for a spot to sleep; they need a residence the place they’ll actually stay. Which means spacious lodging with connoisseur kitchens to cook dinner in, dwelling rooms to loosen up and entertain, and in-residence facilities like laundry to make life simpler.
On the identical time, they count on a high-level service consistency and considerate touches that solely a resort can present. What we’re listening to from our guests is evident: flexibility, consolation and authenticity are key. Prolonged-stay fashions like AKA have confirmed resilient and sustainable as a result of they meet these wants, giving friends the liberty to work, stay and discover whereas having fun with the soundness and care of a luxurious resort surroundings.
When AKA entered the resort area, it did so by reimagining what a keep might really feel like, bringing residential heat and spaciousness right into a luxurious hospitality framework. Moderately than adapting to developments, AKA has constantly formed them, making a class the place design, consolation and long-term livability coexist.
As you look forward, what’s the subsequent frontier for livable luxurious? The place is AKA — and the trade — heading when it comes to how we design for the way in which folks really need to stay?
With Airbnb and different gamers exploring hotel-focused fashions, it’s clear the long-stay, hybrid hotel-residence area is gaining renewed consideration. Prolonged-stay and hotel-residence fashions like AKA have confirmed resilient as a result of they mix the liberty of a house with high-level service consistency and the flexibleness that solely a resort can ship. The place others have struggled to make longer stays seamless, this mannequin stays sustainable, assembly the evolving wants of vacationers who need each independence and reliability.
Architizer is thrilled to announce that the 2026 A+Product Awards is open for submissions! The clock is ticking — get your merchandise in entrance of the AEC trade’s most famous designers by submitting at this time.
Photos Courtesy of Lodge AKA NoMad
